GOVERNMENT INSURANCE AND ANNUITIES.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 632, 15 March 1870, Page 2

GOVERNMENT INSURANCE AND ANNUITIES.

We have received from the Postmaster, Mr T. F. Winstanley, a copy of a circular from the office of the Government Annuity Commissioner, accompanying a copy of the Act passed in the last session of the Assembly in respect to the purchase of Government Annuities and payments on death, &c. We have been furnished also with a voluminous set of tables for the grant of deferred annuities, with the regulations respecting Government Insurances and Annuities, and with a compilation of a set of plain rules for the guidance of persons desirous to insure theirlivesor to purchase Government annuities. The Government Annuity Commissioner invokes the aid of the press for the attainment of the high public object which the Government has in view in bringing forward the most complete, most safe, and simple system of life insurance that has been brought under notice. The safety of the insurance is guaranteed by the revenues of the colony of New Zealand, and the simple facility by which the insurances may be effected may be gathered at a glance. Every post-office in the colony, being a money-order office, at which the Commissioner shall permit proposals for the insurance of lives or the purchase of annuities, is to be opened for the purpose of receiving premiums and the payment of any sums which shall become payable under the policies granted. The Postmaster, after inquiry, directs, if he think fit, the proposer to present himself for medical examination by a legally qualified practitioner. The medical examiner having made his report, the Commissioner, before the execution of the contract, must be satisfied that the proposer for insurance has stated his age correctly, and, if he thinks fit, shall declare that he has admitted the proposer's stateineut of age, and such statement, when so admitted, shall not suhsequently he called in question. The premiums are fixed by duly framed tables, aud extra risks are covered by additional premiums. A list of postoffices which have been opened as Government Life Insurance and Annuity offices, has been furnished to us, and amongst them we notice that of Westport, where every information on the subject may be readily obtained. We believe that an addition to the post-office building is shortly to be made, to accommodate this new branch of work, and that Dr Thorpe has been appointed medical referee for this district.